1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to impact moving carriage printers and more particularly to a dot matrix impact printer having a color print capability.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Dot matrix impact moving carriage printers are well known and typically include a print head containing a plurality of solenoid actuated print wires to selectively drive each print wire against an inked ribbon located above the surface of a sheet or web of paper to print a row of dots to form a symbol, an alpha-numeric character or a graphic. The print head is conventionally mounted on a carriage which is adapted to move transversely across the paper while a predetermined number of print wires are selectively driven against the ribbon and paper to generate a selected printed image. While dot matrix printers were first designed to print in only a single color, typically black, more recently a color print capability has been added to such apparatus. Notable examples include U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,371, entitled, "Apparatus And Circuits For Two Color Printing In Electronic Impact Printers", which issued to J. Prager, Feb. 14, 1978; U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,776, entitled, "Printing Apparatus", which issued to J. S. Heath on July 28, 1981; U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,148, entitled, "Positioning Of a Multi-color Ribbon", which issued to M. Gruner, et al. on July 26, 1983; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,168, entitled, "Serial Impact Printer For Multi-color Printing", which issued to M. Jozuka, et al. on Jan. 17, 1984. In all of the aforementioned patents, there is provided means for selectively positioning a multi-colored ink ribbon in front of a print head.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improvement in impact type dot matrix printers.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a dot matrix printer for printing in multiple colors.
Another object of the invention is to provide an impact dot matrix printer which eliminates the conventional inked ribbon and the necessary forward and reverse control mechanisms therefor.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a relatively low cost yet reliable color printer which can operate in harsh environments.